Colorado Avalanche: Nazem Kadri 2018-2019 Season in Review

The Colorado Avalanche traded a big asset for center Nazem Kadri. Let’s look at what made the player so attractive.

The Colorado Avalanche, as with the rest of the NHL, are getting ready to start their 2019-20 season. Indeed, many players have already been practicing informally at South Suburban in Centennial. Other players, judging by their Instagrams, are making their way here.

Or, in the case of the man in question, their cat’s Instagram. According to Jazzy Kadri, our new second-line center, Nazem Kadri, is here in Denver.

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Colorado made a big trade for Kadri. They sent a beloved Avalanche player, Tyson Barrie, and the well-liked Alexander Kerfoot for Nazem and defenseman Calle Rosen. They also exchanged 2020 draft picks.

Before we get to expectations for the center, a topic for another post, let’s review his 2018-19 season with the Toronto Maple Leafs. This is our final season review of the series.

I’m not a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan, so I didn’t watch any except the two games they played against Colorado. He did score two goals in Colorado, and I’m not a big fan of that. However, he’s our player now and for the next three seasons.

Kadri played 73 regular season and two playoff games last year with the Leafs. In the regular season, he recorded 16 goals and 28 assists for 44 points. In the playoffs he earned a goal and an assist.

He also earned something else, and let’s address that big elephant in the room. Kadri earned what amounted to a five-game suspension in the first round of the playoffs.

The suspension was the NHL DoPS’s reaction to Kadri’s cross-check on Jake DeBrusk in Game 2 against the Boston Bruins. Here’s the infraction:

Kadri immediately received a game misconduct and was ejected from the game. The DoPS later came in with a suspension for the rest of the first round, which went to seven games.

I’m not going to comment on any of that because part of the rationale for bringing Kadri to Colorado is to offer him a fresh start. He does have a history of suspensions and fines:

The Department of Player Safety factors in repeat offender status into its discipline. Here's Nazem Kadri's history of fines/suspensions pic.twitter.com/klhzE35S7Z
— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) April 14, 2019

This tweet came out before the first-round suspension had been announced.

That was a tough way to end his tenure with the only NHL team he’s ever known. But I’m not going to jump on the Kadri hate-wagon. He’s playing in the west, now. Hopefully he does a better job than Ian Cole of suppressing his Eastern Conference hatreds the two times a year he faces those teams.

Moving back to Kadri’s statistics from last season, Kadri averaged 16:11 seconds of ice time, which included time on the power play. Indeed, four of his 16 goals came on the man-advantage.

Impressively, Kadri also earned five game-winning goals. He may not have scored a ton last year, but he made sure the goals he did score counted.

One of those game-winning goals was against Colorado, so we will not be reliving it. However, let’s look at the GWG he scored against the (hated) Minnesota Wild:

That’s a pretty one-timer. I also just love watching Devan Dubnyk clutch his head in despair.

Let’s indulge in one more Nazem Kadri GWG against a Central Divison foe, in this case against the Winnipeg Jets:

Hey, it’s not a bad thing that Kadri is adept at putting the nail in the coffin against Central Division opponents since he’s conveniently ours now.

Anyway, let’s look a little more at Nazem Kadri’s stats. He recorded 184 completed shots and a total 366 shot attempts. Hey, we could use a trigger-happy centerman.

You know what else we need? A faceoff-winning center. Last season Kadri recorded an impressive 55.2% faceoff win percentage, taking 403 of his 730 faceoffs.

Nazem Kadri is 28 years old, and he’s got a lot to prove this season with the Colorado Avalanche. The team traded for him to make Nazem our second-line center, so he’s going to get all the opportunities.